This application is based on U.S. provisional Plant patent application Ser. No. 60/392,042, filed Jun. 28, 2002.
The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of lily plant, botanically known as Lilium L. (oriental×aurelian), and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Manissa’.
‘Manissa’ is a product of a planned breeding program which had the objective of creating new lily cultivars having many large, upright flowers and vigorous growth habit.
‘Manissa’ originated from a hybridization made by the inventor, Cees A. van der Voort, in a controlled breeding program in Rijnsburg, the Netherlands in October, 1997. Both the female and male parents are unnamed proprietary Lilium L. seedlings.
‘Manissa’ was discovered and selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross by the inventor in October, 1997 in a controlled environment in Rijnsburg, the Netherlands.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘Manissa’ was accomplished when scales were taken from the initial selection and grown to maturity in a controlled environment in Rijnsburg, the Netherlands by, or under the supervision of, Cees A. van der Voort. Horticultural examination of selected plants has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘Manissa’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.